These 2 Board Games Are Just Weird
Transcript
Hey everybody, today I thought I'd make a pretty quick video talking about two games that are probably the weirdest and just most unusual games that I've played in modern memory. So, both of these games are from a company called Hobby Japan. As you can imagine, they are a Japanese board game publisher and I didn't know anything about them before picking them up, you know, pretty blindly just because they they appealed to me. I got these at the UK Games Expo. So, it really was a bit of a punt. I didn't know what I was getting into and they turned out to be a pretty damn unusual. So, let's get started with the first one. The first one is is this game here and I think this is called either Guessocracy or Dice Democracy. I'm not sure if there's a direct translation, but as you can see there's there's no English text on the box at all here. So, this is a game that might not even sound like a game when I explain it. So, essentially in the box there comes a bunch of different colored dice.
And the active player is going to roll those dice. They're going to be exposed like 3 seconds before a cloth is thrown over the top of the box which contains the dice. It all comes in here. And then after everybody has looked for 3 seconds, they are going to use their little voting dial to vote on what they think was the most numerous face, you know, the the pip showing and which was the face of of dice that appears the you know, the least. So, maybe there's only one one, but there was I know five fours. And you'd vote accordingly. Now, once everybody's got their votes in, no matter who voted for the majority will get a point. So, it doesn't even matter if that majority was true or not.
As long as it was the majority, those players will get a point. But, if somebody was not in the majority and they're pretty confident that the majority were wrong, then they can pick up this kind of this objection stick that comes in the box, just this foam stick, and that will say, "Look, I disagree with you. Um I'm going to challenge what your vote was." And then once that's done, you're going to reveal the dice, you're going to work out what the actual result was. If the challenging player was correct, then all the players with the majority going to lose a point, and the challenging player will gain points equal to how many times that dice appeared. Um but if they were incorrect, then they're going to lose a bunch of points. So, the stakes are really high to either go for the challenge or to actually lose the challenge. Hence why you mostly just want to be in that majority to keep on trickling along and keep getting points passively without that huge risk of of objecting that result. So, lightning-quick game, as you can imagine. I think you play one round as the as the kind of um you know, the leader once, unless you're playing with three players, where you'll play it twice. So, it's either, you know, six rounds or, you know, four rounds, five rounds of of that. So, it's lightning-quick, and the box itself says um 15 minutes, but I don't know, there's something quirky about this game that I like, and it reminds me very much of a game that I've been advocating quite a lot recently called Dice Pool Party. Uh this is a lot like that, except that it's a bit more social, you know, a bit
more of an experiment, and you know, maybe be a little bit more thinky in terms of you know, just I don't know, just it just has this kind of social dynamic to it, rather than just trying to um score different categories. So, again, I liked it. I I can't say it's objectively a great game, because I suppose it's not, but the fun factor, the unique factor, um and the the quirkiness of it really does appeal to me. So, I like it for that reason, and I'm sure I'll be keeping a hold of this one, even though the box is absolutely terrible when it hardly anything fits in inside here. You can see it has a bit of lift. So, that's a bit of a shame, but other than that, it's it's a lot of fun. Now, the next game is probably weirder again um because I haven't played anything like this game. Uh this is a game called Strange Slot Simulator. So, this is actually pretty much a real-time deduction game. Um you know, there have been games like that before, you know, thinking like Captain Sonar, but this one works so differently um as there are six decks of cards uh put on the center of the table before the game begins. And each of those decks of cards will have a certain breakdown of um of faces on them, you know, all um relating to these different, you know, slot machine uh symbols, you know, your cherries, you know, your grapes, your bells, and so on.
And you're basically trying to work out which each of these decks are um based on how many times those cards are in there. And the way you do that is just pure chaos as there's a timer that started. You'll pick up a deck and you'll keep on shuffling it, drawing three cards out at a time, marking them on your sheet, putting them back in, reshuffling, getting another three cards out, and so on until you might have a grasp on how many times these cards are appearing. Of course, if one deck is completely loaded with grapes and you keep on drawing grapes, then there's a very good percentage um that that is going to be that particular deck. But of course, there's crossover with the other ones um you know, and so on. There's there's a few extra moving parts as well where if you tick off a certain amount of these bells, then you can reveal more cards um and you know, maybe even have an a fourth unlock so each card you obtain, you can draw four cards out.
Now, you know, this although this is, you know, advertised as a deduction game and it is that um you are really kind of just going with the, you know, going on a hunch here. There isn't really enough information to be meticulous about this or you know, really use that deduction to you know, as a you know, as a device to win the game, you're going to pretty much just go on what you feel. If one's wrong, they could all be wrong. Um so, you know, there's not really any I don't know. There's There's not really any deterministic winner in this game. You're probably going to be lucky if you win it or not. Um but again, it takes 20 minutes. I do kind of like that frantic nature of it and if anything, it is it is super unique. I don't know any other game that does this. Um if you don't like shuffling or if you can't shuffle, then this is going to be a big no-no because that's just going to be frustrating. Um and of course, the the game is really reliant on people being honest and shuffling those decks, you know, with effort because if you don't, then the game is going to break essentially. So, it is quite a fragile and flimsy game, but I always give credit to games when they're different or try something unique. This game does that for sure. There's no questioning that. Now, is the game any good? Uh I'm not I'm not sold on the fact that it's good. Um but it's so quick, you know, the game takes 20 minutes that I I I wouldn't really object to playing this and it when you do work it out, it is quite rewarding. Um but it's going to be lucky if you do that or not.
So, you know, I can't recommend this game to everybody. I think some people are going to really bounce off of it. Some people are going to love that quirkiness and just introducing it to people saying, you know, have you seen this game cuz I'm pretty sure they haven't. And that is a strange slot simulator. So, a unique design, maybe not the greatest game, but you know, it's it's frantic fun. I suppose you could put it that way. Um if you are willing to put put aside the you know, deterministic nature of someone winning the game or not because it's going to be pretty much um going with it and hoping that it works out for you. So, um you know, big fun to talk about these two games. Again, I do really like the idea that you know, the Japanese do come up with you know, um out-of-the-box ideas, try something different to what we normally see. Um, and these two are great examples of that. For better or for worse, at least they're trying something different. So, again, hopefully that's um, put these games on your radar. And then whether you want to try the one or not, at least you now know about them.
So, that is a strange slot simulator and Dice & Democracy. So, again, if you have enjoyed the video, please be sure to hit like and subscribe to the channel and check out my other content, too. But, for everybody else, I'll see you next time on Chairman of the Board. Bye-bye.